The Burlingame Telegraphing Typewriter Project
I first became aware of Elmer Allah Burlingame several years ago while working on a Burlingame family genealogy. A distant relative sent me two printed pages of information about Elmer Burlingame, and it was of a nature that I was certain that it was the product of a genealogy mill. One of the sheets was the "Burlingame Bulletin" [Click here to view it in PDF] and it consisted of endless testimonials about Burlingame that indicated that he was a combination of Tesla, Edison, Steinmetz, Einstein, Alger and Bell. It was pretty putrid stuff. I realize now that it was part of the hype for a stock prospectus for the Burlingame Telegraphing Typewriter Company. Burlingame was apparently the inventor of this wondrous machine. The other was a clipping sheet [Click here to view it in PDF] from newspaper articles about Burlingame and his wondrous machine.
Several years later I noticed a stock certificate on ebay for "The Burlingame Telegraphing Typewriter Company", and the hunt was on. Since then I have gleaned bits and pieces of information about Burlingame and his company, and they are presented in the following table. If you have any information about this gentleman, I would certainly appreciate it.
The really strange thing about all of this is that I have yet to find any traces of the Burlingame Telegraphing Typewriter Company after about 1910. What happened to them? Was this a scam? Did they go bankrupt? Were they bought out by another company? If you have any clues, please pass them on!
Update: Jan Cook found this citation on line in Google Books. Apparently it was a scam!
| Elmer Burlingame Timeline |